Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 04/26/2005
Universal's 2005 release
Gold is a repackaged reissue of their excellent 2000 release
Anthology, containing the same 50 tracks over two CDs, the same mastering, and the same liner notes. The only difference is the title and the artwork, which are tailored to be part of
Universal's ongoing
Gold series (which somehow is more extensive than their ongoing
Platinum series, even if it isn't as precious a metal). Clearly, anybody who owns that previous compilation has no need to repurchase this set, but anybody who's looking for a good compilation of
Chuck Berry's classic
Chess recordings of the '50s and '60s should get this, since this contains all of the hits plus the great majority of such excellent non-hit singles as
"Jaguar & Thunderbird," "Tulane," and
"Jo Jo Gunne," none of which are on the seminal
Great Twenty-Eight comp (all 28 songs from that collection are here, however). While it's not as exhaustive as the triple-disc
Chess Box, there's not a bad cut here outside of the abominable
"My Ding-A-Ling" -- a
novelty that grows worse with each passing year, but is regrettably (yet somehow fittingly)
Chuck's only number one single -- and it comes as close to being a definitive
Chuck Berry anthology as a double-disc compilation can be.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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